Having fun with FreeSync

A visit to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas wouldn't be complete without popping by AVN AMD to see what the Sunnyvale chip designer is excited about as we embark on a new year of technology, and we got our answer to that when Online Managing Editor and freestyle rap legend Jimmy Thang moonwalked his way to AMD's location. It was there that he got a glimpse of AMD's FreeSync display technology in action.

AMD has high hopes for its Carrizo processors

Heading into the new year, AMD's resolution is to increase its laptop market share, and the key to doing that lies in its Carrizzo and Carrizo-L laptop chips. Going forward, the chip maker will take a plug-and-play approach that will make it easy for hardware partners to plug any Carrizo chip into any laptop, regardless of the size of the notebook or what pricing tier it falls into.

Performance improvements and bug fixes galore

Between the holiday sales and promotions that have been going on lately, your wallet or purse is probably significantly lighter than it was a month ago. Hey, tis the season for spending, right? Or perhaps it's giving, which the mood AMD is in these days. Closing out the year in style, AMD just released its Catalyst Omega special edition driver, which it describes as the biggest and best software upgrade it's released this year.

Sorry Shakespeare, but GPU family names are kinda important

Those next-gen AMD GPU rumors are coming in thick and fast. Late last month, we had someone on Chinese tech forum ChipHell post some tantalizing performance numbers that they claimed belonged to an upcoming (presumably a R9 300 series) graphics card and now we have a new report that is questioning something that the tech media has taken for granted until now — the codename of AMD’s next-gen GPU family.

Dual-GPU Radeon R9 295X2 drops another $200

Is the best offense a good defense, or is the best defense a good offense? We're not sure, though it looks like AMD has decided to run with the latter -- dual-GPU Radeon R9 295X2 graphics cards can now be found on Newegg for around $770, seemingly indicating that AMD has gone on the offensive and slashed the price of its flagship card by about another $200. Bear in mind that when these cards launched earlier this year, they were selling for nearly twice as much at $1,500.

AMD might not be finished with Hawaii

Ever since AMD launched its Hawaii GPU architecture, there have been rumblings that a faster version exists, perhaps locked away in the Sunnyvale chip designer's underground vault for a rainy day. If that's the case, be on the lookout for storm clouds -- word on the web is that AMD will launch a faster Hawaii part next year before it comes out with Fiji. How exactly it will be faster isn't yet known.

Maybe DirectX 12 is bound for Windows 7, after all

AMD Chief Gaming Scientist Richard Huddy made waves in the media when he said Windows 7 will not support DirectX 12. He made the comment in a matter-of-fact manner while speaking at the PDXLAN event, which was caught on video (and later pulled from YouTube). Whether or not that ends up being true remains to be seen, but as far as his comments go, AMD called them "speculative," adding that he "misspoke" on the topic.

Nvidia wins big in graphics

AMD and Nvidia now share an equal slice of the graphics market, according to the latest data from Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia. It took a strong second quarter for Nvidia to put itself on even ground with AMD -- JPR notes that Nvidia increased its graphics shipments by 12.9 percent sequentially in the second quarter of 2014, while AMD's shipments declined 7 percent.

AMD Radeon graphics card owners had to sit back and watch as Nvidia released not one, but two WHQL certified driver releases in less than a week, one of which included performance tweaks for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and the other adding Assassin's Creed Unity optimizations to the mix. If you've pitched a tent in AMD's camp, you can stop pounding sand now -- AMD's Catalyst 14.11.1 beta driver is now available with performance enhancements for both titles.

Combine bundles for more gaming goodness

The barrage of game bundles continues today with AMD announcing that qualifying purchases of Radeon R9 295X2, R9 290X, or R9 290 graphics cards will be score a free copy of Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth. Purchases must be made from a participating retailer or e-tailer between today and either February 28, 2015, or when AMD's supply of download codes is exhausted, whichever comes first. But wait, it gets better.